


I'm no good at understanding (but I'm good at standing ground)

by aquilasaurus



Series: Like Your Heart Could Break In Two: A Hacksqueak Story [1]
Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: And Pippa is frustrated, Christmas, F/F, Feels, Fluff, In which Hecate lurks in a corridor, Pre-Poly, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 22:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17067995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquilasaurus/pseuds/aquilasaurus
Summary: Hecate overhears Pippa chanting and is affected by Feels. Ficlet.Day 19 of the Winter Fluff Event: Holiday Singing.





	I'm no good at understanding (but I'm good at standing ground)

Hecate’s shoes clacked down the corridor. A nebula of magic wafted in from an open classroom door, and she stopped in her tracks. She steeled herself to reprimand a student out of bounds, but then she heard the voice. A full lyric soprano that could belong to no pupil.

The mist of the chant took on a pink sheen. Of _course_. Pippa.

It was a very old chant, a plainsong: the tune was familiar to Hecate, but the words were not. By force of habit, she leaned against the wall to listen:

 _divinum mysterium modo declaratur_  
_et mens infidelium tumens execratur_  
_firma spe credentium fides roboratur_

She knew it now. The tune was used for a Christmas carol. How seasonally appropriate. As she listened, her shoulders sagged further into the wall, and she closed her eyes and imagined Pippa’s face on the other side of the wall. How she would be holding her book, concentrating her magic to harmonize with herself. Maybe her cheeks would be flushed with the effort. Or maybe her eyes would be closed, ceding control to the magic threading out from her vocal cords, her heart.

She remembered the image, vividly: she had seen it so often when they were in school. How could she ever forget the sight, and the sound, of Pippa chanting?

Surrounded by the delicate haze, Hecate imagined being close to Pippa, closing her eyes too and inhaling the proximity of her. She imagined leaning just a bit closer, just a bit down, and brushing her lips against hers. How soft and pink they would be, like the rest of her. In her mind, of course, Pippa still wanted her. She knew that it was dangerous, having Pippa around the castle. All the thoughts that normally percolated below the surface bubbled up to her conscious mind every time their paths crossed. In those fleeting moments, she mostly succeeded in keeping their manifestations to a biting comment or two. But now, with her here, invading Hecate's territory for a week straight, they washed over her intermittently, and she indulged them. It was easy to get lost.

Silence broke over her: she realized that Pippa had stopped chanting. A thin flame of panic shot through her veins. She made a hasty retreat, lest Pippa poke her head out of the classroom and discover her.

As she made her way down the corridor, Hecate resolved to scan her bookshelf for her copy of the _Piae Cantiones_. She was fond of every book in her collection, of course, but she could admit that this one would be better served in the library of a chantsmith. And it was almost Christmas, after all.

\--

Pippa would know the sound of those shoes anywhere. She kept on, bracing herself for the interruption of Hecate’s sudden appearance, but it never came. After she finished her chant, when she was flipping through her music for another, she heard the footfalls receding. She felt a pang of disappointment, but tried not to let her face crumple.

Coward.


End file.
